Management

Arthur T. Sands, M.D., Ph.D., has served as President of Nurix since June 2020, and as Chief Executive Officer and a member of the company’s board of directors since September 2014. Prior to joining Nurix, Dr. Sands was the co-founder and served as President, Chief Executive Officer, and as a member of the board of directors of Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on target validation and pharmaceutical development, from 1995 to July 2014. Before founding Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Sands served as an American Cancer Society postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Human and Molecular Genetics at Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Sands holds a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Yale University and an M.D. and a Ph.D. in Cell Biology from Baylor College of Medicine.

Hans van Houte has served as Chief Financial Officer of Nurix since June 2020 and has led the company’s finance team since 2015. Prior to joining Nurix, Mr. van Houte was a managing partner at Bionation LLC, a financial consulting firm, and served as acting CFO for multiple new biotechnology companies formed with investments totaling over $150 million from Third Rock Ventures and The Column Group. Mr. van Houte previously held senior financial roles in biotechnology companies including Vice President, Finance and Operations at Trubion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he was part of the team that took Trubion public in October 2006. Prior to Trubion, Mr. van Houte was the Controller, Treasurer, and Principal Accounting Officer at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, where he helped build the financial and accounting organization post-IPO to support growth from a $100 million to a multibillion market capitalization. Mr. van Houte holds a B.S. in Business Administration, Finance and Accounting from Babson College.

Gwenn M. Hansen, Ph.D. has served as Chief Scientific Officer of Nurix since June 2020 and served as the company’s Senior Vice President, Research from July 2019 through May 2020. Since joining Nurix in 2015, Gwenn has focused on establishing the company’s DNA encoded library technology platform for small molecule discovery in addition to leading the discovery organization. Prior to joining Nurix, Gwenn was an Associate Professor in the Center for Drug Discovery at Baylor College of Medicine and served in a variety of discovery-focused roles at Lexicon Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Hansen holds a B.A. in Biology from Gustavus Adolphus College and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.

Stefani A. Wolff has served as Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President of Product Development since June 2021. Ms. Wolff is a Board Member at Rain Therapeutics Inc., a precision oncology company, and previously served in a variety of roles at Principia Biopharma Inc., including as Chief Development Officer from August 2018 to September 2020, and as Senior Vice President of Strategy and Operations from January 2017 to August 2018. From May 2013 until December 2015, she was Vice President of Development at Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and participated in the company’s transition to Amgen. Ms. Wolff spent significant time at Genentech, Inc. and participated in founding the Oncology business, including commercially launching Rituxan in 1997 and building the BioOncology brand, and in development leading the B-cell therapy portfolio across multiple molecules. Early in her career she served in a variety of roles at Eli Lilly & Co. Ms. Wolff earned her B.A. in Chemistry and B.S. in Pharmacy from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Michael T. Lotze, M.D. has served as Chief Cellular Therapy Officer of Nurix since June 2020. He is a leading clinician scientist with more than 30 years of experience in immunology and clinical medicine, dedicating his efforts to the advancement of translational research, particularly in immunotherapy for cancer including dendritic cell, T cell, and cytokine therapies. Dr. Lotze is the co-inventor of multiple patents in dendritic cell vaccines and antigen discovery, and tumor infiltrating lymphocyte therapy. He previously held leadership roles in the biopharmaceutical industry as the chief scientific officer of Iovance Biotherapeutics and vice president of research at GlaxoSmithKline. Prior to joining Nurix, Dr. Lotze served as professor of surgery, immunology, and bioengineering, vice chair of research within the Department of Surgery and director for Damage Associated Molecular Pattern Molecule (DAMP) Laboratories at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Hillman Cancer Center. He was also senior advisor for the Immune Transplant and Therapy Center within the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Enterprises and serves as associate editor of the Journal of Immunotherapy. Over the course of his career, he has authored more than 500 publications and several books. Dr. Lotze holds an M.D. from Northwestern University and completed his postdoctoral training as a scientist at the National Cancer Institute under Dr. Steven Rosenberg.

Eric Schlezinger has served as Chief People Officer of Nurix since August 2022. Mr. Schlezinger has over 25 years of industry experience and has led and developed human resources and legal functions at high-growth private and public biopharma and technology companies. Most recently, he served as Head of Human Resources at Adamas Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a commercial stage pharmaceutical company. Prior to joining Adamas, Mr. Schlezinger served as Senior Vice President, Head of Human Resources at Vir Biotechnology, Inc., where he developed the infrastructure and HR functions that supported the organization’s rapid growth and transition to a public company. Prior to his tenure at Vir, he served as Senior Vice President, Global Business Strategy and Human Resources at Tessera Technologies, Inc., where he managed HR, Facilities, Administration, and Safety for all U.S. and international locations. Earlier in his career, he held leadership positions at Dialogic Inc., Tumbleweed Communications and Roche Bioscience. Mr. Schlezinger holds an Honors Degree from Beijing Normal University, an A.B. from Dartmouth College, and a J.D. from Washington University in St. Louis.

Christine Ring, Ph.D., J.D., has served as Secretary of Nurix since March 2020 and as the company’s General Counsel since September 2019. Prior to joining Nurix, Dr. Ring held multiple positions assisting companies protect intellectual property, engage in licensing transactions, raise capital, and transition from private companies into public companies. Her most recent corporate positions were as Senior Vice President, Legal at Dermira, Inc., a biotechnology company focused on medical dermatology, and as Senior Vice President of Technology, Strategy & Licensing at Amyris, Inc., a biotechnology company focused on renewable fuels and specialty chemicals. Dr. Ring holds an A.B. in Biophysics from the University of California, Berkeley, a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from the University of California, San Francisco, and a J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.

Jason Kantor, Ph.D. has served as Executive Vice President, Finance and Business Strategy of Nurix since January 2022, and served as the company’s Senior Vice President, Finance and Investment Strategy from July 2020 through December 2021. Prior to joining Nurix, Dr. Kantor served as a senior biopharma analyst at Artisan Partners, where he covered industry trends for both large and small cap biotech and pharma companies globally. He also served as board president at Biotech Partners, meeting the non-profit’s goals of increasing corporate sponsorship and gaining support from local government. Dr. Kantor previously served as managing director, biotechnology analyst at Credit Suisse, RBC Capital Markets and WR Hambrecht + Co, focusing on innovative biotech companies and building successful healthcare and research franchises. Prior to that, he held a position as vice president, biotechnology analyst at JP Morgan Chase & Co. Dr. Kantor holds a B.A. in biology from the University of California, San Diego and a Ph.D. in cell and development biology from Harvard University.

Robert J. Brown, M.D. has served as Executive Vice President of Clinical Development since January 2022, and served as the company’s Senior Vice President of Clinical Development from January through December 2021 and Vice President of Clinical Development from June through December 2020. He is trained as a pediatric neuro-oncologist with a decade of immunotherapy drug development expertise. Prior to joining Nurix, Dr. Brown led cellular therapy development programs in both solid tumors and hematologic malignancies, including allogeneic CAR-T cells at Allogene and tumor infiltrating lymphocytes at Iovance Biotherapeutics. Dr. Brown’s training includes pediatric oncology at the Yale School of Medicine and the treatment of pediatric brain and spinal cord tumors at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and University of Southern California. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in radiation-induced brain injury at UCLA, focusing on the role of long-term inflammation on brain development, repair, and dementia. He holds a B.Sc. in chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.D. from the Weill Cornell Medical College in New York.

Buckley Kohlhauff has served as Senior Vice President of Information Technology of Nurix since September 2021. He has over 15 years of experience as an IT executive in the biopharmaceutical industry, leading teams responsible for driving innovation through the secure use of technology. He previously served as Chief Technology Advisor at TeamLogic IT, assisting companies in developing their digital strategy. Prior leadership positions also include Senior IT Director at FivePrime Therapeutics and Senior Director of Information Systems at Lexicon Pharmaceuticals. He has extensive experience optimizing IT infrastructure, ensuring system compliance, improving systems performance, and introducing new levels of business intelligence. As a result of his lifelong work and commitment to innovation and excellence, Buckley has received the RedHat Innovation Award and the Ernst & Young Computerworld Honors Award. He studied IT Management and Cybersecurity at Western Governors University and computer science at Carnegie Mellon University.

Cristiana Guiducci, Ph.D., has served as Senior Vice President, Immunology and Oncology Research of Nurix since January 2021 and served as the company’s Vice President, Immunology and Oncology Research from 2019 through 2020. Prior to joining Nurix, Cristiana Guiducci was the Vice President of Oncology Research at Dynavax Technologies where she directed all foundational research leading to the development of the Dynavax immuno-oncology assets. Prior to her work in oncology, she directed the discovery and characterization of drug candidates for autoimmune diseases at Dynavax. She received her bachelor and master’s degrees in molecular biology from University of Rome, Italy and her Ph.D. in immunology from the Open University of London, UK. She completed her post-doctoral training at National Tumor Institute in Milan, Italy.

Pasit Phiasivongsa, Ph.D., has served as Senior Vice President, Technical Operations since August 2022. Prior to joining Nurix, Dr. Phiasivongsa served as Senior Vice President, Pharmaceutical Development & Manufacturing at Kronos Bio, where he led all CMC development, manufacturing, and supply chain-related activities. Before Kronos, Dr. Phiasivongsa served as Senior Vice President, Technical Operations at Principia Biopharma, where he incorporated key innovations into CMC development and manufacturing. Prior to Principia, he was Vice President, Pharmaceutical Development at Tobira Therapeutics, where he was responsible for CMC-related activities and led the intellectual property strategy and development for the company’s core assets. Early in his career, he held positions in drug discovery, development, and manufacturing. He is listed on 28 U.S.-issued patents and more than 30 patent applications. Dr. Phiasivongsa earned his B.S. in Biochemistry and Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical and Chemical Sciences from the University of the Pacific, Stockton.

Paula G. O’Connor, M.D., has served as the Senior Vice President of Clinical Development since September 2022. Dr. O’Connor is trained as a hematologist-oncologist with more than 15 years of drug development expertise. Prior to joining Nurix, Dr. O’Connor held senior level positions in Clinical Development and Medical Affairs at Protagonist Therapeutics, Oncopeptides, Inc., Coherus Biosciences, Medivation, Onyx, and Genentech. Dr. O’Connor completed her fellowships in Hematology, Oncology, and AIDS Oncology at the combined programs of the Massachusetts General, Brigham and Women’s, and Dana Farber Cancer Institute. She holds a B.A. in Psychology-Biology from Yale University and an M.D. from Stanford University.

Bev Benson, Ph.D., has served as Vice President and Head of Clinical Science at Nurix since January 2022. Dr. Benson has over 22 years of experience in drug development across numerous indications and has worked on five drugs that have received FDA approval. During her career, Bev has worked as a Clinical Scientist serving in positions of increasing responsibility at Amgen, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, BeiGene, CytomX Therapeutics and most recently at Principia Biopharma. Dr. Benson holds a B.S. in Microbiology from the University of Oklahoma, a Ph.D. in Pharmacology & Toxicology from the University of Kansas, and completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah. 

Chris Phelps has served as Vice President and Head of Early Discovery at Nurix since January 2021. Chris has more than 10 years of experience in small molecule discovery, with a focus on DNA encoded library technology. Prior to joining Nurix, he served in multiple roles at GSK, most recently as Director of DNA Encoded Library Screening. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Biology from St. Lawrence University and his Ph.D. in Chemistry and Biochemistry from the University of California, San Diego, and completed his post-doctoral training at Harvard University.

Ena Wang, M.D., M.S., has served as Vice President of Cell Therapy and Product Development since June 2021. Prior to joining Nurix, Dr. Wang was Executive Director of Translational Sciences at Allogene Therapeutics and Senior Director of Translational Sciences at AbbVie Corp. Before joining the biopharma industry, Dr. Wang had a distinguished academic career  at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where she served in a variety of roles including as Director of the Center for Human Immunology , Director of Molecular Science in the Department of Transfusion Medicine, and Acting Chief of the Infectious Disease and Immunogenetics Section; and at Sidra Medicine in Qatar, where she served as Chief Research Officer and built state-of-art translational medicine infrastructures and research programs. Dr. Wang has dedicated more than 26-years to translational medicine with a primary focus on cancer immunotherapy, biomarker discovery and pioneered real-time transcriptional analysis for cancer immune biology and antigen specific T cell monitoring. She has published more than 250 peer-reviewed research articles and is a Co-Founder and Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Translational Medicine. Dr. Wang completed her medical degree at Shijiazhuang Medical University and her Master of Medicine degree at the Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University.

Eren Demirhan has served as Vice President and Head of Biometrics at Nurix since March 2021, leading the Company’s Biostatistics and Clinical Data Science efforts. Dr. Demirhan brings over 17 years of experience in drug pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, championing data-driven drug development ideology and implementation. Prior to joining Nurix, Dr. Demirhan served in a variety of roles at Allogene Therapeutics, Medivation, Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Novartis, Biogen, and GSK. Dr. Demirhan holds a B.A. in Statistics from Middle East Technical University, a Ph.D. in Statistics from North Carolina State University and an M.B.A from Kenan Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill.

Fred Cohen joined Nurix in 2017 and has served as Head of Medicinal Chemistry since April 2020. He has more than 20 years of experience in small molecule drug discovery, spanning multiple therapeutic areas including oncology, neurodegeneration and antibiotics. Prior to joining Nurix, he served at Achaogen, Genentech, and Tularik. Dr. Cohen earned his bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Occidental College and his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California, Irvine.

James Nelson has served as Vice President of Quality Assurance at Nurix since September 2021. Mr. Nelson has 27 years of quality assurance experience in all aspects of biopharmaceutical development and commercialization. He previously served as Vice President of Quality Assurance at Neurocrine Biosciences, and before that as Head of Quality at Arena Pharmaceuticals. He has experience working for contract development manufacturing and research organizations and has successfully brought multiple drug candidates from development to commercialization. Mr. Nelson has worked at sites in the United States and internationally and has managed global teams to ensure consistent and effective quality programs built upon continuous improvement. He has extensive regulatory inspection experience having managed multiple pre-approval inspections, regulatory inspections, and audits. Mr. Nelson earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in both Chemistry and Biology from Sonoma State University.

Janine Powers, Ph.D., has served as Head of Translational Medicine at Nurix since September 2018. Dr. Powers has over 20 years of experience in drug development spanning multiple indications. Prior to joining Nurix, Dr. Powers worked in positions of increasing responsibility at FivePrime Therapeutics and was one of the founding members of the Clinical Biomarkers and Companion Diagnostics organization. During this time Dr. Powers managed biomarker strategy and execution on multiple global oncology trials evaluating both targeted therapeutics and cancer immunotherapies. Dr. Powers holds a B.S. in Biology from the University of California, San Diego, a Ph.D. in Integrative Biology and Physiology from the University of California, Los Angeles, and completed her postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University School of Medicine. 

Jen Dolan has served as Vice President, Market Strategy, New Product Planning and Head of the BTK Franchise at Nurix since December 2021. Ms. Dolan leverages over 25 years of pharmaceutical and biotech experience to bring strategy and operational leadership to drug development. Her expertise includes corporate strategy, operations, product development, marketing, and business analytics. Prior to joining Nurix, Ms. Dolan led commercial teams at Principia Biopharma, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Amgen, and McKesson. Between her years at McKesson and Amgen, she was founder and principal of Dolan & Associates, a biotech consulting company, where she established herself as an expert in commercial and channel strategy in the oncology sector. Ms. Dolan holds a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from University of California, Berkeley, a Master of Science in Engineering from Stanford University, and a Master of Business Administration in Strategy and Operations from the University of Minnesota.

Kim Trahan has served as Vice President and Head of Program & Portfolio Management of Nurix since September 2021. Prior to joining Nurix, Ms. Trahan served in a variety of roles at Principia Biopharma, Inc., most recently as Vice President, Project & Portfolio Management, and participated in the company’s transition following its acquisition by Sanofi. She also served in program management roles at ProNai Therapeutics, Inc. (now Sierra Oncology), Adamas Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc., including participation in Onyx’s transition following its acquisition by Amgen. Early in her career she worked in corporate development at Poniard Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (formerly NeoRx) and as an analyst at Bay City Capital, LLC, a life sciences investment firm. Ms. Trahan holds a B.A. in Psychology and an M.B.A. in Management from Mills College in Oakland, CA.

Marine Champsaur, Ph.D., has served as Vice President and Head of Medical Affairs since August 2022. Prior to joining Nurix, Dr. Champsaur provided scientific strategy and communications consulting services to early-stage biotech companies across a range of treatment modalities spanning the autoimmune and inflammatory disease, vaccine, and oncology space. Before that, Dr. Champsaur played a pivotal role in building the medical affairs function at Dermira, Inc., where she led the medical strategy and communications team. Early in her career, she held roles of increasing responsibility at UCB Pharma within immunology global medical affairs. Dr. Champsaur holds a B.A. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of California, San Francisco.

Raf Lambrecht has served as Head of Regulatory Affairs at Nurix since April 2020. Dr. Lambrecht is a Regulatory Affairs professional with over 25 years of experience in global regulatory strategy and execution. Prior to Nurix, he held regulatory positions with increasing responsibilities at Baxter, Bayer, and FibroGen. He has successfully filed and obtained approvals for INDs, CTAs, NDAs, and BLAs for high profile lead compounds in therapeutic areas of hemophilia, anemia, oncology, respiratory, autoimmune, and neuromuscular degenerative diseases. He brings to Nurix broad international regulatory expertise across the CMC, nonclinical and clinical regulatory areas, and broad experience solving complex regulatory issues in biologics and small molecules. In his early career, Dr. Lambrecht authored expert position papers and participated in pioneering Industry-Agency working groups for guideline development in Europe. He earned a master’s degree in Pharmacology and Ph.D. in Radiopharmaceuticals from the University of Gent, Belgium, and an MBA from St. Mary’s College in Moraga, California.